The Pentagon has awarded contracts with several major US artificial intelligence companies, including Elon Musk's Xai, despite being recently attacked for offensive content produced by chatbot Grok.The contracts announced Monday with Xai, Anthropic, Google and Openai each have $200 million ceiling value, according to the Pentagon Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO).The award is intended to allow the Department of Defense to “harness the technology and talent of US frontier AI companies to develop agent AI workflows across a variety of mission areas.”Xai's inclusion follows new criticism of the company over Grok's controversial response that emerged after the July 7 update. The chatbot praised Adolf Hitler, denounced “anti-white hatred” and claimed that Hollywood Jewish representatives were “disproportionate.” Xai apologized and said he had corrected the instructions that led to those outputs.The latest version of Grok 4, released Wednesday, sparked scrutiny after some of its answers appeared to reflect Elon Musk's views.The contract award comes even when Asmusk remains trapped in a public spat with US President Donald Trump. Musk was a major supporter of Trump's recent presidential election and was tasked with leading cost-cutting agency Doge, but he resigned in May. He later criticised Trump's major budget bills, accusing him of inflating government debt, and urged a series of intense public and social media exchanges. Musk ultimately apologized for some of his more aggressive remarks.Despite the tensions, the government and defense sector are seen as promising new frontiers for AI companies.Xai announced on Monday the launch of its “Grok for Government” service, following a similar initiative from Openai. With the name added to the official supplier list, Xai said that all federal departments and agencies will be able to source their products.Elsewhere, Meta has worked with defense startups to develop virtual reality headsets for military and police use.Openai had already secured its Pentagon contract in June, but it concluded with $200 million.“Establishing these partnerships will expand the use and experience of Frontier AI capabilities DOD, and will enhance these companies' ability to understand, understand and address the most advanced AI capabilities offered by the US industry,” CDAO said.
